TechCrunch

APRIL 29, 2023

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and Equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. I’ve been noticing small things about how early-stage founders have changed their pitches, suggesting that the checks are currently less about the messiah and more about the monetization.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There’s a quick litmus-test conversation any early-stage VC will have with the founder and it’s one that you should be as prepared for as your elevator pitch. It goes something like this … VC: “How much money are you raising?” Founder: “$8–10 million” VC: “What’s your current burn rate?” This is a red flag for VCs.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 25, 2023

But dealmaking is idiosyncratic: a few investors might be content to make a deal over coffee, but early-stage teams still need a sturdy pitch deck or memo they can leave behind. Similarly, one VC may encourage newly minted CEOs to eat ramen and ride the bus, while another might suggest a salary in the low six-figures, depending on geography.

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TechCrunch

MARCH 21, 2023

At one of my first startup jobs, I walked in one day to find two sleeping co-workers who’d spent the night configuring servers at a co-locating facility 60 miles away. 10 tips for de-risking hardware products Thinking about pulling the plug on your startup? PitchBook found that CVCs played a part in 56.2%

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. The short answer is that you should have multiple versions of your “pitch deck” (a short, visual presentation in Keynote, PPT or similar and shared as a PDF) and each occasion has a specific goal. The VC will smile, thank you, and later pass.

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

MARCH 10, 2023

Stories, Slides, and Data Primary data set of public 3-minute pitches and 2-minute Q&As I have spent more than a decade coaching thousands of people on how to tell stories. As a result, I began meticulously cataloging the pitch conversations I listened to and ended up with nearly four hundred thousand words in transcript data.

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

MARCH 30, 2023

Why You Can’t Raise VC Money Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash Many entrepreneurs have experienced the keen sting of rejection when venture capital firms refuse to invest in or otherwise respond to their exciting new startups. Even the institutions that claimed to invest in “hilariously early” startups fell through.

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StartupNation

JANUARY 6, 2022

In this post, I’ll cover six realistic ways startups and entrepreneurs can fund their business , including: Incubators or accelerators. Venture capital or VC. A business incubator or accelerator is an organization that provides resources, mentorship, and connections to startups. Angel investment. New fintech loans.

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Startup Grind

AUGUST 15, 2018

He has worked with several startups, invested in companies like Mayvenn, Gimlet Media, Blavity, Airspace Technologies, Codeverse, and many others Pitch your startup for a chance to meet with Cross Culture VC Q&A: What is your / your fund's mission?

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Revolution

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

Case in point: only 1% of 2022 VC dollars went to Black founders, a marked decrease year over year. We sourced and received applications from hundreds of Black, high-growth startup founders from all over the country and held workshops and discussions about the challenges they face, all of which culminated in a virtual pitch competition.

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TechCrunch

MAY 12, 2023

He said a founder recently pitched him an exciting product, but when asked how long it would take someone else to build the same tool, the entrepreneur said “two weeks.” For example, Jason Lemkin says he hasn’t yet invested in a pure-play AI startup. I’m not sure there is a rush, but I could be wrong,” he said.

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 16, 2021

Juan Carlos Hernández is the executive director at parallel18 , a top-level, performance-driven international startup program with a social mission, part of the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust. Startup markets around the world are heating up, and more investors are competing against each other for the best deals.

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Jason Malki

AUGUST 3, 2023

He is also an angel investor and former EdTech entrepreneur. When I launched WePrep in college, I was researching key drivers for startup success and was introduced to the world of VC. It’s an interesting part of the startup ecosystem because you get a birds-eye view of the market and can help multiple startups simultaneously.

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Jason Malki

JULY 13, 2023

Exploring Shaun Gold’s Entrepreneurial Journey as Nightlife Ninja, Entrepreneur, Bestselling Author, and VC I had the pleasure of interviewing Shaun Gold. He is a successful entrepreneur, VC, 2x best-selling author, speaker, super connector to startups and standouts, Jeopardy contestant, and screenwriter/executive producer.

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 19, 2022

Essentially, VC is a high-stakes extreme sport in which top players can accumulate startling amounts of wealth and power. But where does all that money actually come from, and how do VCs actually make money? But where does all that money actually come from, and how do VCs actually make money? Pitch Deck Teardown: Mi Terro’s $1.5M

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TechCrunch

JULY 7, 2022

This is why I was so excited when Harri wrote about fintech startup Enduring Planet. It’s playing a really clever card: trying to make rapid financing available to climate entrepreneurs in a win 4 situation — where investors, the startups, society and the environment all win. Slides in this deck. Cover slide.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 15, 2023

You need a solid business plan, traction to demonstrate market fit, and the skills to pitch effectively. Don’t neglect ongoing investor relations “A lot of startup founders think that the only way investors will respond favorably is if they provide their best pitch on first contact,” said Mohammadi.

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StartupNation

JUNE 1, 2021

Oftentimes, I read articles offering tips for entrepreneurs that revolve around generic advice on getting started. The investment platform I founded and run, VenturePole, is the investment partner of HealthInc, the health tech accelerator of Startupbootcamp, the biggest startup accelerator organization in Europe. Keep it short.

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

Having worked in the startup world for a few years, I also thought I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting myself into. No one decides to be an entrepreneur because it’s easy?—?but As they say, to be forewarned is to be forearmed, so here are the 10 things no one ever tells you about being an entrepreneur: 1. No pressure.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

I use George Bush vs. Al Gore as allegory and I’ve been using it with entrepreneurs for years to sink in a simple point about how to communicate with the market. Most Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs I know are more like Al Gore. In a VC pitch this type of messaging will do just fine. It is election season.

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This is going to be BIG.

JULY 8, 2013

On top of that, anytime I talk to anyone who wants to get involved in startups but isn''t sure what they want to do, inevitably, I hear, "And then I was thinking maybe I should look into venture capital, too.". I usually direct people to this post --still hanging atop the search rankings for " How to be a VC analyst" years later.

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TechCrunch

MARCH 29, 2023

The platform they’ve been using is Seed Checks , launched by venture capitalist and growth marketing entrepreneur Julian Shapiro around one month ago. The applications are reviewed every two weeks, and, if a startup is of interest, the founders will hear back within two weeks after deck submission.

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

DECEMBER 13, 2020

The Series A round has become a serious milestone for startups, new data shows how to get it done. Less than half of seed-funded startups ever go on to raise a Series A round. Investors are well aware of what’s at stake in this stage of a startup’s development and expect to sign term sheets only for the cream of the crop.

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

OCTOBER 25, 2022

You’ll receive the best practical startup advice straight to your inbox every week. In this week’s edition, we share: Why your pitch deck has one minute to sell investors on your startup The 7 types of startup founder, and why it matters to you Let’s do this. So how do you sell a VC in a minute (or less)?

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

MAY 23, 2022

You’ll receive the best practical startup advice straight to your inbox every week. How to survive the startup funding downturn DC Palter a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who has already lived through 4 major downturns. But what does it mean for startup funding, and how do startups survive the money-drought?

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

APRIL 13, 2022

A Very Honest Guide to Writing Your Fundraise Pitch Deck How to optimise yours for success Congratulations! You know you need a pitch deck to do this and so fire up your slide software of choice and crack your knuckles, ready to wow. I’m an investor at Supernode Global , an early-stage VC fund based in London.

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

She was pitching for a pre-seed round of $400k. The startup ecosystem is a terrific manufacturer of bad fundraising advice. Founders hit the street with their pitch deck, some make it, and some don’t, but nearly all of them ascribe a lot more human influence over the process than there probably is. I’m a female founder.

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This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 16, 2014

How long does it take from first meeting a VC to getting cash in the bank? If all my deals came as intros from trusted connections that I know for years versus at founder pitch events that''s interesting data. If you meet someone at a pitch event, they''ve already got a company and they''re looking to close as quickly as possible.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 5, 2014

How should a large European telco deal with a rival “free Internet access” startup? In my experience many VC’s fall into this “I’m expected to know all the answers” trap. The more self-assured the VC is and the more impressionable the entrepreneur is the worse the outcome.

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 25, 2022

I get a lot of pitch deck submissions for this TechCrunch Pitch Deck Teardown series from people who are raising friend and family rounds, and I mostly pass on them. It was against that backdrop that I received the pitch deck for the Palau Project. Its founder, Jerome Cloetens, is a professional kite surfer (!) Problem slide.

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TechCrunch

MARCH 22, 2023

If you plan to launch a new startup in France, Denmark or Sweden, there is a new seed fund looking for your pitch. This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about de Raphélis Soissan, as she used to be an entrepreneur herself and I first covered her startup, Clustree, back in 2014.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2013

And I am often approached by entrepreneurs in cities which don’t have a vibrant VC community. If you don’t live in a major VC zone, I have some tips for how to make it easier to raise Venture Capital. It’s a goal to help you understand the life of a VC. I travel the country a lot. Ask SuperCell.

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

OCTOBER 18, 2022

You’ll receive the best practical startup advice straight to your inbox every week. In this week’s edition, we share: How VCs choose which startups to fund. How you can sell your startup to VCs with a one-pager. He also teaches us something new about the startup/VC world every week in his column.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 26, 2022

Most founders are not experienced entrepreneurs, which means they tend to repeat the same mistakes as they try to overcome universal challenges. Klaviyo co-founder Ed Hallen’s 3 top pieces of advice for launching a startup. Why a16z pitched Deel to lead its Series A. Why a16z pitched Deel to lead its Series A.

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StartupNation

AUGUST 8, 2021

Here’s a great story from an entrepreneur who bootstrapped her business that will help give you an idea of how you can scale your business via bootstrapping. Related: This Entrepreneur Shares How She Bootstrapped Her Startup (and How You Can, Too). Startup competitions. Check out this list of pitching competitions.

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Fintech regulations in Latin America could fuel growth or freeze out startups. There has been little movement in the amount of VC dollars going to women-founded companies since 2012. In the long term, there needs to be foundational change to level the playing field for women entrepreneurs. Get funded, as a woman.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. I’m not a doomsday guy, but just believe that we won’t see a V shaped recovery, which could make VC funding more difficult for tech start-ups (don’t shoot the messenger!).

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